The fluidity of money in Zimbabwe and the survival of urban informal traders in the past five years.

Abstract

The last ten years in Zimbabwe have witnessed the unfolding of many economic episodes characterised by different forms of money. The year 2009 saw Zimbabwe abolishing its Zimbabwean dollar at the zenith of the world record hyper-inflation. This was followed by the adoption of the multicurrency regime which was however dominated by the US dollar. The multicurrency adoption managed to extinguish inflation and this also saw the flourishing of the informal sector in response to improved disposable income for the people. Subsequent to that, there has been a lot of changes on the monetary landscape such as the shortages of the US dollars due to liquidity problems, a significant reduction in the circulation of US dollar bank notes, the collapse of the mobile money platforms in response to the liquidity challenges, the emergence of a multi-layered pricing system as well as the recently promulgated SI 142 that saw the adoption of the mono-currency punctuated by the return of the Zimbabwean dollar. Urban informal traders heavily rely on the exchange of money in its different forms hence any changes on the monetary side tend to affect them. The ability to restock by the informal traders is negatively affected by an unstable environment. This study therefore seeks to document how informal traders have been responding to the many changes outlined in this overview that have characterised the Zimbabwean economic environment.